PART THREE Disclaimer and other junk in part one XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Part Three-Dragons and High School Magic Friday, September 25, 1998 7:56 a.m. Notre Dame Academy and High School The playground on the side of Notre Dame Academy was still in the early morning air. Sunlight flickered through the trees surrounding the yard, dotting the concrete with gold flecks. It was the perfect place to arrive unnoticed. From high up in the sky what looked like a leaf suddenly circled and landed behind the big oak tree in the corner of the playground. The thing shook itself out, and turned into a boy of about 5'11" with oak brown hair and bright green eyes that glowed in the sunlight falling through the leaves. Alec Ramsay exhaled explosively and leaned against the trunk of the tree. He hated being late for school, especially when he couldn't get a ride. His father, Colin, was on a business trip in Palm Springs, and Mom had decided to go along for the ride and the sunny weather. His face broke out into a grin. Sometimes it was definitely handy to be a Dragon. Flying to school was much easier than making a mad dash to catch the next public bus up to school. Although the form of Dragon he'd used to get to school more resembled a five inch fire lizard more than a true Dragon. A lizard, especially one that small, was much less conspicuous than a full-sized Dragon. He glanced down at his watch and his eyes bulged. It was 7:59. He was already four minutes late for homeroom. His teacher would kill him, not to mention what Molly would do to him when she heard the excuse he was coming up with as to why he was late. With that, Alec set off at a dead run towards the high school. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 8:00 a.m. Mrs. McCready's Class Mulder and Scully stood near the teacher, Mrs. Christine McCready, by her desk, surveying her first period class. This was the class that all the kids had disappeared from, although it hadn't seemed to affect the rest of the students in there. They were still just as rowdy as any high school class that were stuck in uniforms that were too warm for the early fall day. Mulder looked up at the clock. The first period bell had rung five minutes ago, and everything seemed normal. Scully turned to Mrs. McCready, who had a rather agonized look on her face. "Is something wrong?" Scully asked gently. Mrs. McCready looked at the door to the classroom, and then back at Scully. "One of the students isn't here yet." She felt Mulder come up behind her. "Do you think he or she could be the next victim?" Mulder asked. Mrs. McCready shrugged. "I don't know. Alec, that's who's missing, had mentioned earlier in the week that he was staying at his grandparent's home because his parents were on a business trip. It might be further from here than his home is." Scully looked up at the clock. "Well, if he's not here in fifteen minutes we'll go out and look for him." None of the three adults noticed Molly Addison lingering around them, listening in on their conversation. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Molly rolled her eyes and looked up at the clock. Alec was late, she thought angrily. She knew that he wasn't attacked by whatever it was in the forest, he'd just turn into a Dragon and scare the crap out of whomever or whatever it was. No, he wasn't in any danger, just extremely late. And he promised me he'd be here on time, she thought, gritting her teeth together. She smoothed down the short, itchy, black plaid skirt, trying to look cool even though she was about ready to kill someone. Someone whose name was Alec Ramsay. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Alec turned the corner into the hallway where his classroom was, his Doc Martens skidding on the freshly polished floor. Molly was going to rip out his heart with her bare hands if he didn't get there within five seconds. When she had called him up that morning she said she had something very important to tell him concerning whatever was in the woods. Finally the door to the class loomed in front of him, and he jerked on the handle and pulled the door open just as his feet slid past the door. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mulder, Scully, and Mrs. McCready looked up at the sound of the door almost jerking off his hinges. Scully saw Mrs. McCready let out a breath of relief. This must have been Alec, not injured or in a coma, just very late. The door opened fully and Scully had to fight to keep her mouth from dropping in surprise. Alec Ramsay looked incredibly like Mulder, or at least how Mulder would have looked during his high school days. Alec was pretty tall, about 5'11", with bright green eyes that had a strange glitter in them, and hair that was the same shade as Mulder's, but just a little longer. His white polo shirt was untucked, and his black wool pants were dusty, showing he'd run quite fast to make it to class. That and the fact that he was panting with his forehead propped up against his left forearm that was resting against the doorjamb. She looked over at Mulder, but he didn't seem to notice the resemblance between himself and the boy, even though he was looking straight at Alec. He just looked relieved that there wasn't another victim. Scully looked from Mulder to Alec once more and concluded that there was a piece missing in the whole situation, but she just couldn't figure it out. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Molly's eyes shot from Alec to Mulder and back to Alec. This is just too damn spooky for words, Molly thought. They could have been twins, or father and son. Or maybe-uncle and nephew? Her mind immediately shot to a story Alec's grandma, Catriona, had told her about a little boy named Fox who had disappeared into thin air one day. Stealing a glance at Mulder, Molly decided she'd give anything to know his first name. Maybe, just maybe... Her thoughts were cut off by a heavy hand coming down on her shoulder. She turned and looked slightly downward into the face of Kevin Silvers, a friend of both her and Alec. "What?" she asked. Kevin angled his chin towards where Alec was still leaning in the doorway facing Mulder, Scully, and Mrs. McCready. "You remember what happened last time McCready asked him why he was late?" Molly's pale face became even paler than was imagined humanly possible. "Oh, no," she moaned. She looked over at Kevin, and the two mutually decided to go over to Alec to stop the mess they both knew he was going to get into. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Mrs. McCready turned to face Alec fully. "Do you have a good reason as to why you're late?" she asked him sternly. Mulder looked at Alec and caught the slight quirking up of the corner of his mouth. He recognized the look as one he'd used often, usually when he was pissing off Skinner and other senior agents. He couldn't wait to see what the kid had come up with. Scully saw the glimmer in Alec's eyes. Suddenly a memory from one of their earliest cases came into her head. 'Sometimes the need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of my humiliation.' She just instinctively knew that he was going to say or do something truly outrageous--except maybe for Mulder. Alec pushed himself off the doorframe and walked to face Mrs. McCready. Scully's eyes were drawn to his left arm. There was a patch of skin that appeared scale-like in the fluorescent lights of the classroom. It almost looked like the same thing Mulder had on his back over a month ago. Scully watched Alec's face break into a sly grin, an expression she was all too familiar with. "Well," Alec began, but that was all he was able to get out. Kevin's hands had wrapped around Alec's upper right arm. Molly clamped her left hand over Alec's mouth. She glanced down at his forearm, which was coming up to pull her hand off his mouth, and saw the patch of scales. So that was how he got here so fast after he missed the bus, she thought with a groan, and quick as lightning covered the scales with her right hand. What she didn't notice was Scully watching her movements with a sharp eye. Molly knows what the scales are, Scully suddenly concluded. "What he was saying," Molly began with her sweetest smile, "was that he is truly sorry for being late, and he'll try not to be late again." Mrs. McCready looked at Alec with a doubtful look on her face. "Really?" she sneered. Alec's head bobbed up and down rapidly beneath Molly's hand. Mrs. McCready sighed and waved a hand toward their desks. "Whatever. Just sit down now. I've got to begin class." With that, Kevin let go of Alec's arm and Molly took her hand off his mouth, but didn't release her grip on his arm, and they walked to their desks. Mulder looked around the room with a grimace. The rest of the kids didn't notice the commotion. From what he could guess this wasn't the first time this had happened. He rolled his eyes. High School was just soooo much fun the first time, he was really looking forward to spending more time there, he thought ruefully. Right, and if you believe that then you've got the bridge real cheap too. He let his eyes travel around the room, slowing down when they came to rest on Alec. There was something about that boy, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He looked over at Scully with a slight grin, and they headed over to the seats by the windows where Mrs. McCready had said they could observe the class from. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX "So who's the stiffs in the suits?" Alec asked Molly as they headed back to their desks. "Those're the FBI agents I told you about. They're here about what happened to Jenna, remember? I told you about them when I called this morning," Molly said. "Oh yeah," Alec muttered, remembering the conversation from that morning. He shook his head distractedly. His memory was usually very good, but over the past few days his mind was becoming the equivalent of meatloaf. Maybe I'm getting the flu, he thought, although he wasn't really convinced that was the case. Molly looked over at him staring into space, a strange habit for him that was becoming more frequent over the past few days. That and if he noticed something about the male FBI agent were two questions in the forefront of her mind. But right now there were more pressing matters to be taken care of. Still holding his left forearm, she asked in an innocent voice "Hey Alec, how'd you get here this morning? After all, I know you missed the bus and your grandparents second car is in the shop, and your grandfather left for work earlier this morning, even before I called." She looked over at him slyly to see his face pale underneath his fading summer tan. "Uh..." he stuttered. Molly lifted up his forearm and pulled her hand back to reveal the patch of scales. Alec's eyes bulged almost comically as they sat down into their seats at the table they shared. "Oh," he murmured, holding his arm under the table. "Nice try, Dragon Boy," she muttered, grinning. "Laugh it up, Fuzzball," Alec muttered, all the while subtly shaking his arm underneath the desk in order to get the scales to shift back into normal skin. That had never happened to him before, and he'd had the full Dragon powers for a good few years now. He really must have been coming down with something. Or that instinctively he knew something major was going to happen soon. He'd have to ask his Gramma when he got home. Well, whatever he was doing wasn't working because the scales were still on his arm. "It's not coming off," he whispered to Molly. "What am I gonna do?" She looked at him thoughtfully for a second and then reached for her purse. She pulled out a compact full of pale ivory cover-up. "Last ditch resort?" she grinned. "No way in hell I'm wearing makeup. Try again," he whispered fiercely. Molly sighed resignedly and placed her hand over the patch on his arm. She closed her eyes tightly for a few seconds, then pulled her hand back. He looked down and sighed with relief-the patch was gone. "Thanks," he whispered. "Now what was that thing you wanted to talk about? You know about..." he trailed off suggestively. "At lunch. I don't want anyone else hearing about this." XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 11:30 a.m. Can't we go out for lunch?" Mulder whined under his breath to Scully. The class right now was just filing out of the room on their way eat lunch in the school cafeteria. Scully looked over at him with a look that seemed to say sorry. "I wish we could, but we have to watch the class at all times." "What if the class hasn't done anything so far?" he grumbled. It was true. So far the class really hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. Of course, the kids weren't exactly normal in themselves, but then, no high school kid ever was. Pulling a bag out from under her chair, Scully took pity on Mulder. "Look, Mulder, I got some subs for us when I went to check in with Captain Avery earlier today so we don't have to eat the drivel they serve for lunch here." "Good," he grinned, taking the bag from her. Together they walked to the cafeteria and took a seat in an out of the way corner so they could keep an eye on the room. When they were seated and eating, Mulder pulled out the notes he'd been taking the first half of the day. He looked over them briefly and then bit his lip. "Well, so far I'd have to say that whoever is causing the kids to become catatonic is not in this class. "I think you're right," Scully said, looking around the room. Her eyes came to rest on Molly Addison and Alec Ramsay sitting a few tables away from them underneath a window. "But there's something about those two." "Which two?" Mulder asked, twisting around in his seat to get a better look at the cafeteria. He followed Scully's gaze to land on the two kids. Inside he knew something was up with them also, including a very uncanny resemblence to him, but he was intrigued to learn Scully felt the same way, and even more eager to find out her thoughts on them. "What about them?" he said. Scully shook her head. "I don't know, I just keep getting a feeling that they know something about what's going on." What she didn't mention was that she wanted to know if he saw anything familiar about Alec. Truly, though, she wasn't surprised he didn't see anything. The man had no concept of how he looked. Mulder suddenly broke into a grin. "Agent Scully has a feeling?" Scully reached out a heeled foot and kicked him in the shin. "Yeah, yeah," he mumbled although still with a grin on his face. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Molly and Alec settled down at an out of the way table to eat lunch. She didn't want anyone else hearing what she was about to say. Although they probably wouldn't have known what she was talking about anyway. She glanced around, and the only ones within any close distance were the two FBI agents who, even for all the resemblance to Alec, she wasn't really worried about them understanding what they were talking about. Alec got out his sandwich and took a bite. "So what did you want to talk to me about?" he asked. She reached down into her backpack and pulled out what looked like her algebra book to the normal eye. But she and Alec weren't normal. His eyes bulged out when he saw past the algebra book glamour. It was a fairly large volume bound in dark brownish-red leather, with gilded pages and gold etchings tooled into the leather. "That's one of the books from Aunt Shan's shop, isn't it?" The upper floor of Shannon's bookstore held all books that were for the reference of the Dragons and Witches that resided in the northeast. Basically, if you weren't a Dragon or a Witch, you had no clue those books ever existed. "Yep," Molly nodded. "She let me borrow it last night. Y'know, there's some real interesting stuff in here," she said cryptically. "Like?" he urged her on. Molly sighed and leaned back in her chair. She opened the book on her lap and began flipping through pages. She looked up for a moment, her eyes connecting with Agent Scully's. Suddenly she got a chill down her back as Agent Scully stared at her and the book she was holding. Molly shut her eyes quickly, breaking off the connection. Inside her head Molly suddenly realized that there was much more to Agent Scully than what met the eye. And if her guesses were correct something major was going to happen very soon. She started when Alec began nudging her calf with his foot. "Hey, Mol, you okay?" he asked gently. She shook her head to clear it; she'd think about Agent Scully and her partner Agent Mulder later. "Yeah. Where was I?" "You were baiting me with the information in the book," Alec grinned. "Oh, yeah. Well, I just remembered last night that I'd read about the things that are happening to Jenna and the rest of them." "In one of the books while you were training?" Alec said, wrinkling his brow. He wasn't familiar with the extensive things Witches have to learn when they come into their full powers. "Uh huh." Molly looked down at the book again, and found the right page. "It's called a Cader-Ieran." "What exactly is a Cader whatever you call it?" "I think it's one of those creatures that survived from a long time ago, probably by hiding out and adapting," Molly shrugged, trying to make some sense of the old fashioned writings. "Like Dragons?" Alec questioned, making a connection to something they could relate too easily. "Yeah. From what I can tell it says here that Cader-Ierans have an ability to appear as humans. Maybe that's how they survived so long?" Alec wrinkled his brow. "So they're like us, Dragons, they're humans with not so human abilities?" Molly bit her lip and stared hard at the yellowed, crackling pages. "I don't think so. I think they're creatures who can disguise themselves as humans." She looked up at him with a scared look on her face, her grey-blue eyes beginning to cloud over. "They've got no human qualities at all. They take one soul, life force, whatever you want to call it, once a year for food. That's all they need to eat, no real food at all. The rest they just kill for pleasure..." she trailed off, her voice dropping to a whisper, her eyes boring into his. Alec placed a hand over hers that was gripping the top of the book tightly. "You okay?" he questioned sincerely. She sucked in a deep breath. "Yeah." "Look, if you don't want to continue I can just take the book home and read it later." Molly shook her head. "I'm okay. There's only a little bit left anyway." She turned her eyes back to the book. "Apparently the only other thing they eat is a plant called Foxglove, which combined with a natural venom their bodies produce, is what puts the kids to sleep and drains their...energy," she said, searching for the right word that wouldn't make her start crying at the horror of the situation. "So what are we going to do about it?" Alec said with determination. Molly's head jerked up, shocked, and he grinned. "Well, nobody else is going to have any clue as to how to stop this thing," he looked over his shoulder at the FBI agents, "and the G-men back there ain't going to be able to help." "I'm not so sure about that," Molly muttered under her breath. "What? Never mind. What I'm saying is we've got more info on this thing than anyone else, and that we've got the power to stop it." Molly smiled weakly at him. "You're right. But we'll figure out what to do after school. I'm too emotionally exhausted right now to think coherently." She leaned over and put the book back in her backpack. "I'm gonna go use the ladies'. I'll be right back." She stood up and shouldered her backpack. As she walked by Alec he stuck his hand out, caught hers, and held it tightly. She looked down at him, her grey-blue eyes meeting his glittering green ones. "I'll...I'll be right here if you need me," he said, not what he had originally planned but all he could get out. "Thanks," she whispered, and walked out of the cafeteria. Alec looked after her for a few seconds, and then turned back to his lunch. Neither one noticed a minute later that Agent Scully had gotten out of her own seat and followed Molly into the bathroom. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Scully looked around the room again, having taken a break from her conversation with Mulder. Her eyes landed on Molly and Alec, two kids she was beginning not to trust, besides Alec's resemblance to Mulder. Her eyes fixated on Molly, holding a math textbook in her hands. Scully blinked, and got a better glimpse of the book she was holding. It was now slightly larger, and bound in a dark colored leather, with gold worked on the cover. She shook her head slightly and blinked again, convinced she was seeing things. But the book was still leather bound. Then, right in front of her eyes, the cover of the book shifted back into the algebra textbook as Molly placed it back in her backpack. She sighed and rubbed her forehead with her hand. This whole case was getting too weird, from Mulder and Alec's likeness to seeing things that weren't really there (or so she thought). "Hey Scully, you feeling okay?" Mulder questioned, concern in his eyes. "Yeah, just a headache." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Molly slip off to the bathroom, and in a split second decided it would be the perfect time to question her in private. "I'll be right back, Mulder. I'm just going to go take some aspirin." "Okay," Mulder said, relaxing. Scully walked off to the ladies', an itch forming in her head to find out what exactly Molly Addison was hiding. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX END OF PART THREE-Dragons and High School Magic